Back in 2015, Gartner had claimed Cloud to be one the greatest technologies that existed. Little did we know that cloud would actually surpass everything and still hold the throne in 2022? While in the past cloud was mainly used to host business applications, its role today has expanded and diversified to a large extent. Cloud gained immense popularity in this arena owing to its ability to mitigate risks significantly for data-heavy businesses. Its nature being industry-agnostic, cloud soon penetrated into other aspects of business; in this case, product development.
Today, cloud is most commonly used for transforming brilliant ideas in to smart, sustainable and scalable products. The advantages of using cloud-based solutions for product development are numerous. The flexibility and state-of-the-art capabilities that cloud has to offer are unmatched till date. Cloud allows seamless integration of technologies that help in streamlining processes and building best-in-class products. With the advent of cloud, the entire gamut of product development has changed. With constant changes in customer behaviour, companies such as IT-driven enterprises have to be on top of their game. And that’s where cloud comes in to the picture. Cloud allows quick, seamless integrations and empowers companies to deploy new features and upgrade existing ones with unmatched ease.
In this blog, we will explore how cloud has transformed the traditional process of product development
As cloud offers customisation and seamless integrations, organisations have now turned more cost effective. Traditional product development tools and technologies are time consuming and require constant monitoring. These solutions keep the resources equipped and reduce their efficiency in other aspects. With cloud, most functions are automated and made secure. This results in increased time for resources to concentrate on other business functions and generate better business avenues. Cloud not only saves time but also ensures ease & convenience of overall management.
Cloud based solutions also save companies the cost of resources such as hardware infrastructure, servers etc.
Traditionally, product development was a time consuming process with multiple layers. Cloud has single-handedly reduced many steps and ensured better quality of work. The usage of SaaS, for instance, will result in saving a significant amount of time spent in developing a new product. Thus cloud brings down the product development cycle rapidly. In times when the world is changing rapidly, such solutions are bound to become the new normal. To remain relevant in today’s cut-throat market, IT-solution providers must come with quick fixes of patches and important upgrades.
A fixed bug or a quick update to the existing app or solution goes a long way in reclaiming a lost customer or gaining a loyal one.
In traditional product development, testing used to be done at the end. However, in the case of cloud, testing happens real-time. The experts can access the application from anywhere in the world and test the efficacy of the product thereon. This offers unmatched speed and ensures speed of execution as well. In addition, the product that is developed using cloud is tested real-time allowing mitigating errors and ensuring that the end-product is ready for the world to see, use and experience. In traditional product development cycles, there would always be a gap between the development and testing stage – cloud has nearly bridged this.
It is established worldwide that cloud offers better insights than any other solution. Today’s businesses strive and thrive of data. Using technologies such as big data analytics, one can identify patterns by streamlining the unstructured data. According to an industry report, 54% of organisations use big data solutions. These solutions help them target their solutions more accurately and plan their business as well as promotional activities accordingly.
Cloud has the potential and the ability to cater to real-time market fluctuations. Since it can be accessed from anywhere, it can be transformed almost real-time to – a) mitigate an unwanted risk or b) to elevate user experience. Additionally, depending on the nature of business, an organisation may opt for more security layers such as virtual private cloud, APIs or encryption solution for the security of confidential data. This is highly effective in data-sensitive organisations or industries – example: BFSI. Moreover, being entirely virtual, hardware failures do not impact the efficacy of the cloud-based solutions. This results in increased uptime.